Guys are down with 'Downton Abbey'

Guess again if you think the men checking their laptops and mobile devices in the airport or at the gym are looking up sports scores.

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By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

capecodtimes.com

By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

Posted Feb. 16, 2013 at 2:00 AM
Updated Feb 16, 2013 at 9:20 AM

By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

Posted Feb. 16, 2013 at 2:00 AM
Updated Feb 16, 2013 at 9:20 AM

» Social News

Guess again if you think the men checking their laptops and mobile devices in the airport or at the gym are looking up sports scores.

The odds are that quite a few are keeping up with something much more complicated: the lives and loves of the fictional characters inhabiting the PBS series "Downton Abbey."

It turns out that the early 20th-century costume drama, a runaway hit, has developed quite a following among men — to the surprise of many of the fans themselves. "Downton Abbey" winds up its third season Sunday night.

"If you described the show to me — 'It's a soap opera set in post-World War I in British high society' — and told me I'd be gripped, I would have said, 'Are you drunk?'" Lafe Low of Franklin said, repeating a comment he posted on the Times Facebook page.

Low first watched the show at his former wife's house in Centerville when he was dropping off his teenage son.

"It just drew me in," Low said. "It's such a rich story."

Joe Marganski, a Harley-Davidson enthusiast from Guilford, Conn., who has a cottage in Eastham, describes himself as an accidental fan.

He got the "Downton Abbey" bug after stumbling across the series on Netflix while he was recovering from the flu. He burned through the first season in one day.

Then he bought the second season and burned through that in a day.

"I had to know about Mary and Matthew, Mr. Bates and Carson," he said, referring to the Crawley family and their staff who share life's up and downs at the Downton Abbey manor house.

His wife wasn't too interested at first, but now she is a fan, too, Marganski said.

In many cases it is the lady of the house who get the gentleman into the series.

"My wife (Debbie) dragged me to it and said, 'You've got to watch this show,'" Jeff Myers of Barnstable said. "Fifteen minutes into Episode 1, I was gone, hook, line and sinker."

A professional photographer who worked as a creative director in advertising, Myers admires the show's high production values and attention to detail.

He called it "some of the best you'll ever see on the small screen."

But it's the relationships and nuances in character — not even lady's maid Sarah O'Brien is all bad — that keeps the Myers coming back for more.

"They are able to grab your heart," Myers said. "Every once in a while they stomp on it, like they did with losing Sybil."

He was referring to the death of the Crawley's youngest daughter, who died in childbirth this season.

Myers, Marganski and Low are among a male viewership that is millions strong, according to PBS rating statistics. Nearly 30 percent of the 10.6 million viewers watching the first two episodes of the third season were men 18 and older.

In fact, the number of men watching "Downton Abbey" this year is three times the number of men age 18 to 49 who typically watch PBS in prime time, a WGBH spokeswoman said.

Men appreciate a good story like "Downton Abbey," said Jack Bakker of East Harwich.

"The writing and the acting are all phenomenal," he said.

Bakker said he and his wife, Joyce, started watching the second season and caught up in two days.

A vintage car buff, Bakker enjoys the opportunity of seeing old ambulances and buses getting in gear again.

But it's the machinations among the aristocratic Crawleys and their servants that drive the show, Bakker said.

"My favorite is Carson, the butler. He's so proper. He does have a sense of humor. It's a little dry," Bakker said.

Low loves Violet Crawley, the grande dame played by Maggie Smith, whose zingers account for many of the show's best lines.

"She's adorable," Low said. But he thinks he knows how the Crawleys would react to hearing that he watches the show with his ex-wife and, sometimes, her husband.

"It would be scandalous!" Low said.

Lee McDaniel of Providence said he identifies with the servants who keep Downton Abbey running.

"They have a better sense of what's fair and right" as opposed to what's proper and expected, he said. "The staff — they have dreams."

McDaniel said he's also intrigued by the status of women — "even upper class women weren't that far from being second-class citizens or chattel or property."

As a gay man, he said he also appreciates the way the series tells the story of gay and bisexual characters who would not have been free to express their sexuality.

When it comes to keeping up to date on episodes, technology is a man's best friend. McDaniel, who just started watching this year, said he sometimes catches up on season two on his phone.

Marganski said he ordered the third season from PBS and watched it to the end on the Saturday before the Super Bowl.